I think most of us girls fall victim to buying the insanely cute cat collars out there. I know my cat has around 6 collars even now as I write this! She has the zebra pattern one, she lost the tiger print one but that was probably my favorite. Now she has a travel collar with all her information on it (rabies vaccines and contact info) as well as some of those that if they get caught on something, break away. They’re meant for outdoor cats so they don’t ever choke to death by their collars. You name it, I got it.

However, collars do damage to the neck area by constant rubbing. They eventually take the hair off your cat (or dog) and can rub their skin raw from there. I remember as a kid our dog, Max, was scratching a lot at his collar that we kept on him 24/7. My dad took it off one day because it was obvious it was irritating him and we found giant red sores on Max’s neck.

Recently with my own cat I noticed I left one of her collar’s on too long and she was missing hair. Where the black hair was gone, was white skin. I usually rotate collars and go through periods of keeping my cat indoors and without a collar at all to let her fur and skin rest but I just hadn’t been thinking about it lately and as she sat on my desk last night I took her collar off thinking I’d left it on a while… sure enough, the evidence was there.

So as great as collars are for the accidental escape and carrying their information of you and just showing that they actually belong to someone else, make sure to rotate your cat’s collars and to leave them off as much as possible for the health of your cat’s fur and skin.